Wide-angle lense for Nikon camera.

[leighonigar]

Another lens options is the $290 Pro-Optic 8mm f/3.5 Fish-Eye CS. I bought one a couple months ago and really like using it. It is manual focus but works great.

http://www.adorama.com/alc/article/Product-Review-Pro-Optic-8mm-f35-Fish-Eye-CS-lens

Yes, it's a good lens (I might buy one if I can justify it) but it won't meter on the D3000 and I doubt the OP wants all that distortion. A nice thought though!

 

[Westside guy]

I enjoy mostly taking urban architecture and landscape photos. I'm still unsure about a decision between zoom/fixed lenses, but am leaning towards fixed since they supposedly create a crisper end photo, and are supposedly better for learning. My budget would be somewhere between $500-$800 (or $1,000 if I'm in a spending mood).

The quality difference between fixed focal-length lenses and zoom lenses is overstated, and the advice is IMO outdated. However the cost differences are real.

When I was shooting DX I liked the Tokina 12-24 very much (that was the first generation; I think most of the people voting for it now are talking about the second generation). I did a lot of research prior to my purchase, and I must say what really stood out is how pretty much everyone who bought a wide-angle lens ended up being very happy with it - no matter which vendor (Nikon, Sigma, Tokina, even Tamron) they settled on. So the main advice I'll offer is don't sweat the decision too much; you'll almost certainly love whatever lens you end up with.